London recap

Recap of London

Hey gang, sorry for the long drought of blogging.  When you let one day slide, all of a sudden it\'s two or three days and still sliding.  I\'ll try to back on the horse :). When last I blogged, it was Thursday moring and I was about to leave Edinburgh, Scotland.  From Edinburgh, it was straight to London to see what this big city was all about.  The 5 hour train ride wasn't the most exciting trip, but heck throw on a movie (Inception) from the iPad and time goes pretty fast.  

THURSDAY AUGUST 9,  2012

By the time I arrived in London and dropped my gear at the hostel, it was already getting pretty late, so I just decided to walk the extended  neighborhood and get a feel for where I was.  Along the way I passed some "minor" attractions such as Hyde park

Kensington palace    

The Albert memorial

And Wellington Arch

Two interesting occurences, after I took a picture of an Olympics sign, a military bloke came hurdling toward me screaming what are you taking pictures of!!!!!!  I was clearly confused.  Turns out right behind the sign there was an inconspicuous tent, however inside was apparently some operations that were NOT allowed to be photographed.  Once he saw my underwhelming photography skills I was cleared to proceed.  Whew! International crisis avoided.  

Another fun sighting, was someone who I shall refer to as old Mary Poppins.  She was just south of the Italian gardens within Hyde park.  She was literally feeding the squirrels from her hand.  I\'m not sure why, but she was not nearly as nice to the birds, constantly brushing them away.   

And what else could possibly compete with Mary Poppins?  A tight tope walker practicing his trade with the ripe tied around two trees.  Who would have thunk?

FRIDAY AUGUST 10,  2012

Friday was designed to be a relatively easy day, one where you get up late and then just see what happens.  Turns out I think I walked as much as I had anytime since I arrived in Europe, so much for the rest day.  It all started off simple enough, with a little walk in the direction of Hyde park to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace.  The normal straight forward approach was closed off, so a detour was in order, but nonetheless I found my way, but not before some random lady asked, me to take a couple photos of her and send them her way.  I\'m still debating on sending, though I have both her facebook and email account.  

The changing of the guards is somewhat of a boring sort of affair, though it was spiced up, when I was listening to some of the music, and I swore it sounded like staying alive and then all of a sudden others started singing along to the tune and sure enough it was.  Another song sounded vaguely like a Michael Jackson, though for the life of me I cannot recall which one.  

After the guards, I walked around the area a bit more, and saw a few memorials and monuments, some of the more memorable ones were

-memorial gates

- bombers memorial

- Peter Pan monument. 

- Princess Diana's memorial fountain. 

I found it odd that you build a memorial to such a classy lady and allow kids to wallow in it and I\'m sure do more than that 

- Westminster abbey 

Unfortunately this closed early on this day and I couldn\'t go in to see it, but always quite amazing to see such old buildings even if only from the outside. 

Within hyde park, is where the olympic 10k swim was being held.  I was only able to see the end of the 10k marathon swim.  But it was a great experience, especially hearing the support that the crowd gave to the final guy who was to cross the line. I did see the medal ceremony, from across the pond, as to get closer one needed to purchase tickets.   

I was able to take a tour of the Houses of parliament.  This was a pretty good experience, being able to walk through the house of lords and the house of commons.  The tour guide was pretty good with a combination of being witty, nerdy and sometimes on the verge of comedic. Almost like another Brit I know. :)    The good thing about the tour is that it combined a history lesson of the transition from the monarchy dominated society to the one led by parliamemt, and a step intomthe way politics are managed today.

And of course you can't forget Big Ben...

The London eye is one of those things that you just have to do when you\'re in London. It gives you a fresh look at a city and it gives an interesting perspective to it all.  Of course it\'s not for those who don\'t deal well with heights as it goes up over 400 feet into the air.   What I really enjoyed about it was seeing the rest of the London skyline come out from behind the nearer buildings, even though it felt like a hazyish type day and the views weren\'t as great as I\'m sure they could be.

The rest of the night was about walking around looking for someplace to eat and just taking pictures of key points of interest as darkness fell  

 Ben Franklin house

Melville\'s house (moby dick)

10 Downing St. which is locked down like crazy

Sphinx - Given to London some 100 years ago - you'll note of the side of the second picture where the pedestal looks banged up.  That is the result of a bomb that was dropped not too far away during the second warred war.

Shakespeare globe theatre ( the reproduction of course)

 st Paul\'s cathedral

London bridge 

tower bridge - with the Olympic rings 

SATURDAY AUGUST 11, 2012

I RUN, OTHERS SPEED WALK

Out for an easy 17 mile morning jog, I stopped and watched a bit of the 50k speed walkers race.  Wow, it just looks unnatural and uncomfortable!  What are these people thinking?  On my way back in from my run, I was able to stop a bit more and heard on the announcement that someone was disqualified for improper form or something of the sort.  My running form, as many can attest to, is horrendous, but I\'d hate to be pulled off the course because of it.  Can you imagine someone saying any of the following too you... You run too much on your heels, you don\'t lift enough from the ankle, your knee isn\'t going high enough, you\'re not getting enough kick back, stop bending at the waist, chest up, use your arms more, look forward and for god\'s sake stop wearing basketball shorts, and then getting thrown off the course.  Oh wait, everything but getting thrown off the course, I have heard... Very sad :(. 

Sadly no pictures, as I didn't bring a camera out with me on my run.  

OLYMPIC PARK FAILURE

I\'d been working since my arrival to see if I could get tickets just to be inside Olympic park, but sadly, they\'d been sold out for quite some time and I wasn\'t getting anywhere on getting some.  I decided to just travel up that way and see what could be seen from the outside.  Not much!!  The place is pretty locked down.  They had an Olympic park viewing deck inside the mall that is nearby, and the view from there was inadequate at best :(.  

Outside there was bar with an outdoor big screen where you could catch some of the action of the day

I decided that I needed some chocolate to cheer up my mood, so as I was at the mall, I decided to see what I could find.  Luckily for me some chocolate manufacturer was giving out free samples. BONUS!  I love it when a "free" plan comes together.  Too bad the chocolate bar never made it out of the mall, it was gone in a heartbeat.  I\'ve really got to work on my sugar addiction.  

LONDON DUNGEON

Upon my return to downtown London, I went to the London dungeon.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was thinking that this would be more kolmainham goal than haunted house.  I was completely wrong and fully enjoyed every minute of it.  It all started off with a walk through a hall of mirrors, which was mind-baffling good, as you made your way through to the first "story station".  Here they introduced us to the dungeon around 1665, the time of the bubonic plague and the impact on the prison.  The story continued with the impact of the London fire in 1666 and a pseudo demonstration of torture device on a lucky tourist.  "Would you like that ice pick in your neck or where the sun don\'t shine".  You could also opt to have your tongue removed or your manly parts, OUCH!!!!  Onward we went to an 18th century court of law, where three of the other tourists were put on trial and sentenced to death.  One was guilty of being Australian, and another was guilty of "weeing in the well on Wednesday you weirdo".   The tour continued with a mini Water boat ride "on" the river Thames, which had us plunging backwards to Sweeney Todd\'s place, where we were all set down for a trim, only to be saved in the last minutes by the police.. Whew!!  I\'m too young to die, even if my grey hair makes me look a bit distinguished.   Next we went to a séance, where we were to "shoot to kill" otherworldly spirits as we were spun around to different settings.  Then we were introduced to jack the ripper and the terror he rained.  As we switched up scenes we were thrown 10 years into the future, the anniversary of his last murder.  All of a sudden cans are falling from shelves, lanterns are moving on counters, the lights flicker on and off, and all of a sudden jumps in jack the ripper with a knife, the lights cutout and when they come on he\'s gone.  Onward in history we went, to queen Mary being burned at the stake.  To demonstrate,none of the guys on the tour was brought up and tied to the stake, they "lit" the ambers on fire and smoke started to billow up.  Then the lights went out and when they came on the only thing remaining was a charred corpse with an eye dangling.  Poor bastard!  The final set up was accessed by way of a spinning bridge.  Yes, we came to the gallows, we were all about to be hung!  Up we went about 2 stories up.  Our cases were heard, we were all found guilty and then bam, we were dropped suddenly.  The pictures afterwards were hilarious.  One lady was grabbing her kids, holding them back and she had the most surprised, yet horrified, look on her face. 

WICKED

I think i have only ever seen one other big production broadway play and that was Shrek back in 2008 in New York City.  I got a lot of advice that seeing a play in London was a must.  Heck, I even got this advice from the lady next to me on my rerouted plane to London.  And thus a theatre show was to be.  Wicked is what I ended up choosing and overall, I was very impressed.  Great production, lighting, storytelling...  Even my super ADD self was kept interested and attentive.  

After the theatre I hung around to grab a bite in the district and just people watch a bit.  As I was munching down on my dinner a guy walked up from my left, completely drunk off his rocker and inquired where Burger King was as he couldn\'t find it.  I looked left and kindly replied two doors down that way, and he slowly stumbled off to find some grub.  

Guy acting like a seal circus act (video to come later) 

SUNDAY AUGUST 12, 2012

OLYMPIC MARATHON

Sunday morning brought about the marathon. I was excited to get to see as much as possible.  I knew without tickets, I wouldn\'t be able to be at the finish line, so I went down the course a bit.  I was able to catch them briefly early in the race through the crowd of people and again about 50 minutes into the race.   Early on I could see both Meb and Ryan near the front.  

As they came around for the 10 mile mark, I was surprised to not see Ryan hall come through and another runner was getting picked up in a van, as he pulled out of the race

I thought I might have missed him, but when he wasn\'t there at 18 either, it was clear he had dropped out.  After the 18 mile pass, I went ahead and walked around to get some differ views of the athletes.  Towards the end of the marathon course, you could see one runner walking.  I think all marathoners have felt like that at some time.  However, with the crowd support, he started running again, and the crowd grew just a bit louder to show their appreciation.   

(runner who got walked and then ran again)

 It was a amazing, how many people were lined up on the 8 mile long course.  Of course, in any large gathering of people, there are the idiots that come out in full force.  Hello mothers with two non-walking children, please do not bring your double wide strollers onto the small streets and sidewalks of Europe and expect to easily get trough a traffic jam of people at a heavily attended Olympic event.  

TOWER OF LONDON

Built by William the Conqueror in the late 11th century, as the main fortress to protect London.  It was the main home of the English monarchy for over 500 years.  

Many would consider that the crown jewels which are on display here as the most important part of the tour, and I have to admit, it\'s pretty cool to be so close to such history.  The current set of crown jewels only date back to the late 1600\'s when Charles II was returned to the thrown after an 11 period where England had no monarchy at all, due to the beheading of Charles I at the will of parliament (of course he tried to behead them first, so I guess what goes around comes around). 

This is the building where the crown jewels are kept.  No pictures of the jewels are permitted :( 

The royal armoury is in the white tower, built around 1080.  It contains artifacts from years gone buy, including a human sized word and a suit of armour that is probably being incredibly generous with the wearers anatomical features.  

Other than that there were a few exhibits on the exotic animals that used to be kept on display (and sometimes forced to fight)

the ravens kept on the property

 torture tactics of bygone days

and the historic chambers of the kings of old.  

CLOSING CEREMONIES

It\'s been crazy the last couple of weeks, I\'ve been either in the middle or very close by the olympics and I\'ve hardly watched them.  An update here or an update there, but that\'s about it.  Blame it on all of the cool things there are to do in countries one has not been to before.  Alas, lots of dirty laundry and the closing ceremonies made certain that I would pay attention.  I stayed at the hostel and watched the closing ceremonies with a group of folks there.  It made for a nice relaxing evening and I was able to get some of the work done on this blog!!!  

MONDAY AUGUST 13, 2012

When I booked London, I had tentatively planned on leaving Monday morning and heading to Paris.  However, I decided to extend for one more night and take a group tour that would take me to Windsor, Bath, and stonehenge.  I had wanted to see stonehenge all along, however, when I was out walking around on Friday night, I got a strong recommendation to see Bath as well from a Brit, an Aussie and someone from Poland.  They were coworkers at the same firm, and a little tipsy while  playing a game of guess that tourist\'s nationality.  I guess I stick out with a nikon d80 around my neck and a backpack on my back.  Anyway, they guessed I was German.  They were part right as my grandfather (maternal) was of German descent.  The recommendation was again reinforced by one of the ladies at the hostel and thus, a tour was to be had.

The tour was supposed to leave at 8:30 from near Victoria station, and I was staying near Russell station.  I had some packing to do (switching rooms at the hostel to stay an extra might), some post cards to mail, and of course the mad dash to the leaving point.  Of course, I get there with some time to spare and then we dont leave for another 40 minutes.  Super grr!!!  

WINDSOR

The castle- was started to be built around the same time as the tower of London, late in the 11th century.  It was all part of a castle building effort that William the conqueror spearheaded, as he pushed a philosophy that he and his supporters needed to protect themselves from the English, as they could rise up and take back what he had conquered.  The castle was based on a manmade hill and built up from there.  Originally a moat was built, but it could never be filled in as the land around was chalk, and thus not apt to hold the water.

View from the parking lot

welcome in so many languages

Queen Victoria's old train

Inner walls of the castle

Within the castle, there\'s only a few things to see for the public.  Queen Mary had an extravagant doll house that was built up.  It was ok.  Then there was a room celebrating 60 years of Elizabeth as queen with 60 pictures of her.  It included shots with such famous folks as Ronald reagan, JFK, and heck lady gaga. LOL.   Finally were the state rooms, where unfortunately photography was not allowed and there always seemed to be someone staring you down to make sure the lens cap was on and no pictures were bring taken.  Though many of the rooms (bedrooms, drawing room, banquet halls, etc...) felt repetitive with Holyroodhouse, the armory area was very impressive.  Tons of knifes, swords and guns were on the walls acting nearly as art themselves.  There was a lot of knight\'s armour, and statues.  All in all, quite a sight to see.  

The only other part of Windsor what was open was the church.  You were able to walk around and see who was buried within, including the queen mother and George the VI.  Oh and princess Margaret, the queen\'s sister wanted to be buried with her parents, so she was cremated and in she went, as there wasn\'t room for her whole body.   

Geoff asked us to be back to the bus by 12:00, by 12:15 we were still missing a few people and the bus almost left without them.   Geoff was incredibly mad! Fortunately I was on time this go round (unlike in Galway), though, the bus had no markings so it was difficult to pick it out of the sea of tour buses that all looked the same.  

BATH 

This town on the western edge of England near Wales, was named for the roman baths that were built here, by the soldiers that were positioned here at that time.  Unfortunately, during the 400\'s, the soldiers were all called back to Rome, and those left behind didn\'t care for the pipes.  They slowly filled with silt and broke down, flooding the area .  The remnants of the bath were lost for a long time, but once they were uncovered they ultimately became one of the top 100 world heritage sites

Pictures really do say it all.  

main entry to the bath


The pump station

How it was set up back in the day

"the bath" - we were told to not even put our hands it the water as it was pretty dirty.

Another angle

The source of the "bath" water

STONEHENGE

One of the top 10 world heritage sites, and quite frankly, nobody knows why it was built, there\'s new debate about when it was built, and certainly on one knows how it was built.  But heck, it\'s amazing to think that these stones came from anywhere, were dragged to this site, carved to their shapes and positioned (1/3 of each stone is actually buried) so perfectly that the whole thing aligns with the solstices so you can tell what month it is based on the positioning of the sun through the pillars.  Heck, there were even 4 stones (now there are only 2) that when a line was drawn around them formed a perfect rectangular shape and then, another set of lines could perfectly pinpoint the center of the henge.  Just amazing!!! 

Welcome to Stonehenge. 

Requisite shot proving I was there taken by a stranger

All and all a good day.  The funniest part about today has probably been the Russian priest-ish type guy.  Lord he smelled bad.  I\'m not sure if he simply needed a shower or if his deformed toes were actually rotting.  I know you\'re thinking I\'m being mean, but that\'s actually the nicest way to put it.  Anyway, he spent the entire day telling people to "take picture" and then talking about how bad the Olympics were.  Of course he also got a few "stupid English" comments thrown in there throughout the day and chastised someone for simply saying "Jesus", he needed no say "Jesus Christ".  I lost it at that point and couldn\'t help but just laugh!!!  His picture is below!

Oh and here's a guy that apparently really likes paint and birds (this was taken at bath on the way out)